


A Better Offer

by tuesday



Category: Sunless Sea
Genre: Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, F/F, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 11:46:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: "I'm afraid I cannot offer more," the Brisk Campaigner said, "but I can offer this."





	A Better Offer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vass/gifts).



> Thank you very much to Prinzenhasserin, whose suggestions and corrections improved this work considerably.
> 
> The quote from the beginning is what the Presbyterate Adventuress tells the Captain if they offer comfort and the Campaigner is aboard. Dialogue from the end is shamelessly lifted and adapted from canon events, too.

_"Sorry, I've had a better offer."_

 

"I'm afraid I cannot offer more," the Brisk Campaigner said, "but I can offer this."

This was more than enough for the Presbyterate Adventuress. The Campaigner's mouth was hot against her own. The Campaigner's tongue was dry where it slid against her lips. Every touch burned against her skin. She felt like something fragile and tender deep inside had caught fire, had gone from a small spark to a full-blown conflagration. It was not her soul. The Adventuress knew the Brisk Campaigner's condition was not contagious. (Not, she reflected with a rueful smile, that it would much matter if it were.) This fire was something else—something better, something worse, something far more dangerous. But then, for the Adventuress, danger was no longer—had never been—a concern.

Time passed far too quickly. There were soft-spoken words and gentle touches. There were gasps and sighs and the careful application of teeth. There was a sound like a shriek, cut off before it could properly form, and she felt something inside break, felt it come together. It was over too soon.

After, when they were both sated and the sweat on their skin was evaporating in the heat of the room, they curled into one another in the bunk of the Campaigner's cabin and listened to the sounds of the zee, the water lapping at the hull, the cry of bats headed for shore. The Adventuress tangled their legs together, not quite ready to sleep. The morrow would approach at its own pace. She did not welcome it.

"I believe," the Campaigner stroked her warm, solid fingers with practical, blunt nails down the Adventuress's side, "that I could have loved you."

"I know," and the Adventuress closed her eyes, curled a little bit further into the Campaigner's warmth, "that I already do."

There was a stoic silence. The Campaigner's hand stopped, rested against her ribs. Eventually, she spoke, not the three little words of impossibility, but important all the same: "Look at me."

The Adventuress was tired—she had a big day tomorrow—but this was something she could give. The Campaigner's eyes were bright in the dim light of the cabin's lantern. Something glowed, strange, eerie, beautiful, behind her skin. Her hair was burnished steel. The Adventuress could gladly look her fill for the rest of her life. It was a shame their time together was so short.

The Brisk Campaigner cupped her face in her hands, stroked her cheekbones with strong, callused thumbs. She made a promise: "I will remember you. Always."

The Adventuress believed her.

—

The morrow came as it ever did, as hungry and as constant as the zee. The Campaigner watched her dress almost clinically, the eyes of someone examining something carefully, scrutinizing every detail to press into memory. At the cabin door, she pressed one last dry, hot kiss to the Adventuress's mouth. Arm in arm, the Campaigner saw her as far as the gangplank. There, they stopped. The Adventuress took a step back, away.

"Stay on the ship." It wasn't quite a plea, but it was closer than the Adventuress usually got. The Campaigner's expression was understanding when she explained, "I don't want you to see me die."

The Brisk Campaigner was still watching with that warm, careful gaze as the Adventuress stepped ashore. She didn't, couldn't, look back.

The preparations were complete. The Sisters were waiting.


End file.
